April 6th, 2022
David Peachment
Our minds are incredible things! They have the capacity to feel, remember, dream, and think new thoughts. The brain is one of the most (if not THE most) intricate and complicated pieces of biology on the planet. After centuries, scientists still don’t understand how it fully works. There are parts of the brain whose function is not known or how it even all works together. The brain inside your head was/is even constantly developing all the way up to age 25! That’s a long time to develop. It grows and improves itself continuously up until this point. But what happens after? What happens after can largely depend on you. The brain can be changed for the better throughout your life, but it requires the right mindset.
How easy you think it is to change yourself and how this all comes together is ultimately how you view your mindset, skills, and ability. Do you have a belief that they are fixed? Or that they can change? This is the argument of a fixed mindset vs a growth mindset. So I’ll break down the differences.
Fixed
A person with a fixed mindset believes that all of their skills are all born with them and cannot be changed. For example, let’s say I am good at geography. I believe geography is the way to go, and I don’t want to learn other education subjects. Why would I want to learn something I’m not going to be good at? The person with a fixed mindset does not want to evolve, grow, and learn everything there is to learn out there. Instead, that person wants to try and avoid disappointment from not being as good at new skills as they are with their natural talents, such as the before mentioned geography. Avoiding mistakes and trying to be “perfect” is the name of the game. This often stems from a fear of trying new things and accepting new ideas. While this mindset will keep you mentally “safe” for a while, it will ultimately lead to disappointment and dissatisfaction in your life, and things won’t change for the better.
Growth
The growth mindset is the opposite of the fixed mindset. It believes in the experience of learning and doesn’t care about the goal or the final outcome. What really matters is everything that can be learned in the process of learning. A growth mindset is all about improving oneself through effort, persistence, and learning from one’s own mistakes. A mistake should be considered a stepping stone to success, something needed to achieve a goal and not something to be frowned upon. The growth mindset allows children and adults alike to face the world with the enthusiasm of “what should I learn next if what I am doing does not work?” Instead of avoiding mistakes, a person with a growth mindset will use them as opportunities to learn better ways of doing things.
Which is better?
If you didn’t figure it out already, the growth mindset is the better option by far! The fixed mindset may work for a while, but eventually, it will fail. If you believe you can’t change anything about yourself, whenever things change around you (which they will), you’ll be left feeling lost and left behind. For example, say you’re not very good at using computers. If you simply believe you’ll never be good at working on computers, you will be completely left behind as our world drives towards more and more technology integration in our lives. Someone with a growth mindset will take the opposite approach. They’ll make mistakes for sure, but they’ll learn from them and keep evolving their abilities. Going back to the computer example, there was a time when I didn’t know much outside of surfing the web and using Microsoft Word. I believed that I didn’t have the mind for learning the intricacies of computers. But by eventually changing my mindset, I decided that I really wanted to understand computers, and it was possible. Today I have an IT certification! At some points, it was very hard, but what I learned is that it is entirely possible!
Adopting a growth mindset will be one of the best decisions of your life! By using this mindset, I’ve been able to push past what I thought I could and bring myself to new heights! I’ve learned new skills, gained new knowledge, and led a much happier life! And you can too.
Until next time,
David Peachment